Earl Hodgins Movies
Actor Earle Hodgins has been characterized by more than one western-film historian as a grizzled, bucolic Bob Hope type. Usually cast as snake-oil salesmen, Hodgins would brighten up his "B"-western scenes with a snappy stream of patter, leavened by magnificently unfunny wisecracks ("This remedy will give ya a complexion like a peach, fuzz 'n' all..."). When the low-budget western market died in the 1950s, Hodgins continued unabated on such TV series as The Roy Rogers Show and Annie Oakley. He also made appearances in such "A" films as East of Eden (55), typically cast as carnival hucksters and rural sharpsters. In 1961, Earle Hodgins was cast in the recurring role of wizened handyman Lonesome on the TV sitcom Guestward Ho! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Guns and Guitars could have served as the title of any Gene Autry picture released in 1937. In this one, medicine-show entertainer Gene runs afoul of a crooked town boss who moonlights as an outlaw. The villain murders the local sheriff and pins the blame on poor Gene. With the help of comical sidekick Smiley Burnette, our hero breaks out of jail to clear his name. Though Guns and Guitars contains more action than usual for an Gene Autry picture, it pales in comparison to such superior 1937 Autry vehicles as Rootin' Tootin Rhythm and Boots and Saddles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Autry, Dorothy Dix, (more)
- 1936
Dick Tracy -- or rather his future portrayer Ralph Byrd -- found himself in the unfamiliar surroundings of the range in this Tim McCoy Western from low-budget company Puritan Pictures. Byrd played Tex Weaver, a G-man going undercover as a bank robber in order to flush out gang leader Buff Brayden (Ted Adams). Assisted by former agent Tim Ross (McCoy) and kindhearted gangster's moll Goldie Harris (Lois January), Tex learns of a forthcoming raid on the Bordertown bank. Unfortunately, while appearing with Tim's medicine show, Tex is killed by a bullet fired offstage simultaneously with Tim's. Accused of murder, Tim makes his escape, rejoins the Justice Department, and manages to not only foil the bank heist but also gather enough evidence to convict both Brayden and his boss, bank examiner Willey Taggart (J. Frank Glendon). McCoy, who had joined Puritan in 1935 after leaving Columbia Pictures, would make ten Westerns for the little company, all of them above-average oaters considering their limited budgets of only 10,000 dollars a picture. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim McCoy, Lois January, (more)
Ghost Town Gold was the second entry in Republic's long-running "Three Mesquiteers" western series. Ray "Crash" Corrigan and Robert Livingston return as Tucson Smith and Stony Brooke, while Max Terhune replaces Sid Saylor as Lullaby Joslin. Almost immediately, comic ventriloquist Terhune established a rapport with his two co-stars, though audiences could have done with a lot less of his garrulous dummy Elmer. As for the plot, our three heroes try to retrieve some stolen money before an innocent banker is blamed for the theft. Adding spice to the quest is the fact that the banker has a pretty daughter (Kay Hughes). Other highlights include a typical Republic saloon-brawl scene, in which Tucson cleans the clock of head-villain Frank S. Hagney. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Livingston, Max "Alibi" Terhune, (more)
In this comedy, an amnesiac takes off with a young woman. This causes the woman's father to hire a detective to find them. Real mayhem ensues when a nightclub owner/gangster gets involved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roger Pryor, Wendy Barrie, (more)
- 1935
Produced on a reasonably lavish scale by the usually parsimonious Mascot Pictures, Harmony Lane was the first of three filmed biographies of 19th-century songwriter Stephen Foster (the others were Fox's Swanee River [1939] and 1952's I Dream of Jeannie, produced by Mascot's successor, Republic Pictures). Douglass Montgomery stars as Foster, with Evelyn Venable and Adrienne Ames as the women in his life and William Frawley as minstrel impresario E.P. Christy (the part played by Al Jolson in Swanee River). The film follows Foster from his early attempts to study for the ministry to his first flush of success in the years just prior to the Civil War, ending with his death in drunken poverty in New York. Just what was it that so attracted Hollywood to this melancholy tale? Perhaps it was the fact that Stephen Foster's songs were in the Public Domain, thereby allowing producers to sidestep expensive copyright and licensing fees. Harmony Lane was written and directed by Joseph Santley, a prolific if uninspired helmsman of early-talkie musicals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglass Montgomery, Evelyn Venable, (more)
- 1935
Written by genre specialist Oliver Drake, this overly complicated B-Western from Gower Gulch company Spectrum featured Bill Cody as "The Rambler," a cowboy who promises a mysterious masked stranger to look after the welfare of pretty Catherine Cotter. The girl is arriving from the East to take possession of her inherited share in a ranch besieged by cutthroats out to steal the property. "The Rambler," proposes to buy Catherine's share in the ranch for much more than the market value but she refuses. To prove that her prospective suitor, a slick lawyer (Roger Williams), is in reality an unscrupulous crook, "The Rambler" pretends to be a member of a gang of rustlers, easily gaining the man's confidence. Then to everyone's shock, Catherine's presumed dead uncle (Earle Hodgins) not only reveals himself to be the masked stranger but that "The Rambler" is in reality the son of his dead partner and the heir to the other half of the ranch. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Paradise Canyon is one of the most action-packed entries in John Wayne's "Lone Star" series. On the trail of a counterfeiting gang, undercover agent John Wyatt (Wayne) joins the traveling medicine show of Doc Carter (Earl Hodgins). For a while, it looks as though Doc is the leader of the gang, but when he and his daughter, Linda (Marion Burns), are kidnapped by the real villain, Wyatt realizes he's been riding the wrong trail. The last-minute rescue is almost as thrilling as the earlier scene in which Wyatt takes a high dive off a steep cliff into a river. Ace stuntmen Reed Howes and Yakima Canutt are prominent among the supporting players. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Marion Burns, (more)
- 1935
Another of cowboy hero Bill Cody's low-grade horse operas for Spectrum Pictures, Cyclone Ranger casts the white-Stetsoned star as the Pecos Kid. Despite his reputation as a cattle rustler, Pecos is a nice guy underneath. He gets to prove it by saving a blind old woman's cattle stock from falling into the hands of the villains. When his work is done, Pecos deposits the baddies in the local calaboose and bids adios to the fuming sheriff. Cyclone Ranger is no prize winner, but it isn't as awful as such future Cody vehicles as Border Menace and Phantom Cowboy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Cody, Eddie Gribbon, (more)
- 1934
Joe E. Brown plays a dual role in Circus Clown, as would-be circus entertainer Happy Howard and his rustic old father. When dad, a former circus man himself, disapproves of Happy hitting the sawdust trail, the boy does so anyway, smitten by a beautiful female bareback rider. So naïve is our hero that he doesn't realize that the "girl" is actually female impersonator Jack (Don Dillaway), who strings Happy along just for laughs. Once this plotline is straightened out, Happy becomes the hero of the day by substituting for a drunken aerialist -- and there is no more proud or enthusiast spectator than Happy's happy dad. If Joe E. Brown looks genuinely frightened in his scene in the lion's cage, he should; the lion affectionately pawed Brown during one take, resulting in six stitches in the comedian's arm. More serious than most Brown vehicles, Circus Clown is distinguished by the star's spectacular acrobatics (the real thing -- no doubles), and by some excellent split-screen work during the "father/son" scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe E. Brown, Patricia Ellis, (more)
